Finally! I can put the pizza dough and pizza sauce recipes that I've posted together into their final product - pizza! There are a few necessary tools to making a good pizza at home. You could use neither of them and bake the pizza on a round pizza baking sheet, but you will not get as good a crust. If you like to make pizza at home, I would definitely suggest investing in these two items - a baking stone (or equivalent) and a pizza peel.
1. Baking stones are expensive but they really make a difference when making a pizza. However, there is a way around this! You can usually purchase unglazed ceramic flooring tiles at stores like Lowe's or Home Depot. They work just like baking stones and are much less expensive. I'm talking about $2 per tile versus $40-60 per stone. The tile will be more prone to break than a baking stone since they are thinner but you can buy a couple at a time (and I've been using mine for about 4 months and it's still going strong). You may need to get the tile trimmed if it doesn't fit in your oven (I think we had to get ours trimmed about 3-4 inches on one side), but Lowe's or Home Depot will usually do it for you for free.
2. Pizza peels are imperative for transferring your pizza onto the scalding hot baking stone in your oven. Don't try to do it any other way. I'm warning you - I've been there, done that. Made a beautiful pizza and then couldn't get it off the counter and into the oven! Absolutely could not do it. I had to throw the whole thing away and go out for pizza. It was a disaster. This catastrophe was also helped by the fact that I did not flour my counter top enough. But! Get a pizza peel. They are relatively cheap on Amazon (this is the one I have - $17). You'll thank me.
1. Baking stones are expensive but they really make a difference when making a pizza. However, there is a way around this! You can usually purchase unglazed ceramic flooring tiles at stores like Lowe's or Home Depot. They work just like baking stones and are much less expensive. I'm talking about $2 per tile versus $40-60 per stone. The tile will be more prone to break than a baking stone since they are thinner but you can buy a couple at a time (and I've been using mine for about 4 months and it's still going strong). You may need to get the tile trimmed if it doesn't fit in your oven (I think we had to get ours trimmed about 3-4 inches on one side), but Lowe's or Home Depot will usually do it for you for free.
2. Pizza peels are imperative for transferring your pizza onto the scalding hot baking stone in your oven. Don't try to do it any other way. I'm warning you - I've been there, done that. Made a beautiful pizza and then couldn't get it off the counter and into the oven! Absolutely could not do it. I had to throw the whole thing away and go out for pizza. It was a disaster. This catastrophe was also helped by the fact that I did not flour my counter top enough. But! Get a pizza peel. They are relatively cheap on Amazon (this is the one I have - $17). You'll thank me.
Homemade Pizza
Makes 2 medium pizzas
Ingredients
pizza dough - my recipe can be found here
pizza sauce - my suggestion can be found here
sliced whole mozzarella cheese*
toppings**
Directions
1. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. I suggest that you use a pizza stone or unglazed ceramic tile to cook these pizzas and if you do, make sure it is in place in your oven first so it can get nice and hot. If you don't have a pizza stone (or equivalent), you can bake the pizzas on round pizza baking pans like normal.
2. Roll out your balls of pizza dough on a well floured surface. I rarely get mine exactly circular (as you can see from the pictures) but it doesn't affect the taste much :) Roll, toss, or pull the dough as thinly as possible without breaking it (but if you do, you can pinch the hole closed pretty easily). If you are careful not to let it stick to the counter, a rolling pin works great. You just have to roll it out several times, until the dough looses some of it's stretch because at first when you roll it out it will pop right back to where it was. This part will take some practice to get used to. Use lots of flour. Once you get the dough to the shape you like, place it on a pizza peel that has been prepped with a little cornmeal to help it slide around (flour will do in a pinch but cornmeal is better).
3. Prick all over the surface of the dough with a fork. I've forgotten to do this before. It isn't pretty! The whole thing balloons up. Do not forget this step!
4. Spread the pizza sauce on the surface of the dough however thickly you like it.
5. Spread the slices of mozzarella cheese all over the pizza. Don't worry if there is room between them because the cheese will melt and fill in most of the gaps.
6. Add any other toppings that you like.
7. Jiggle the pizza on the pizza peel back and forth until it starts to move just a little. Your toppings might move too but it's okay. Open your oven door and jiggle the pizza off the peel and onto your stone. Be careful because the oven and the stone will be screaming hot!
8. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until the crust starts to get golden, the cheese is bubbly, and your house smells divine. The pizza peel is also very helpful for getting the pizza out of the oven. Allow to cool on your counter top for at leave 5 minutes, otherwise all the cheese and toppings may fall off as you cut. Your wait will be rewarded.
*Two pizzas will use about 2/3 of typical log of mozzarella cheese.
**Of course, use any toppings you like - mine and Andrew's favorite is pepperoni or sausage and mushroom.
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